This class is full of interesting quotes and tidbits. However, the single most intriguing line to me is “puzzles have one solution whereas games have many.” I love puzzles. Historically, I’ve always enjoyed games (usually not video games) of the board game genre. I played a lot of competitive chess when I was younger, but I mainly enjoyed it not because of strategy but because of the puzzles. I’ve fallen out of love with games like chess because I took the favor for puzzles. This class made me realize that, especially P3, that there’s still lot of enjoyment for figuring something out even if it has multiple solutions. Along the way of trying out one strategy for a game, you encounter several individual puzzles.
Creating system games is almost as fun as playing them. You need to think of what players would do in certain situations based on how the mechanics of the game are set up. When you play adversarial games, you have to do the same thing – think of what other players would do. Additionally, there’s so much math inovolved. It was a fun balance between math and creativity. You can have the entertaining part of Chipotle while including the logical deducation of game theory. I’ve almost enjoyed making games more than playing them. In a way, playing system games is less creative and more logic. Making them definitely entails a lot more creativity.
